The guarding dog, part II.

Ok, so DD was not sleep-walking when she asked me to help find her dog in the middle of the night. That's a relief. Last night I asked her why she came to me the night before. She said that the dog was on the couch, and she found it in the morning. I said, "Yeah, I know that. But why did you come to me in the middle of the night?" She gave me an exasperated with a hint of eye-rolling, "But I needed the dog!"

Yeah, that explains it. Now everything is crystal clear.

In related news... After I finished my conversation with DD, I went into the kids' bedroom to get their pajamas. When I turned on the light I saw someone sitting in the corner of DS's crib, looking somewhat like this:

To say that I got scared is to say nothing. I know the feeling lasted only a few seconds, if that, but that was enough to cause some heart palpitations. Pretty soon I realized what was actually sitting in DS's crib: a big stuffed Shrek, a gift from my dear parents, not some hard-core criminal hiding from justice.

We got to do something about our children's stuffed toys, they are causing too much commotion...

Thank you.

Thank you very much for you kind comments about my grandmother. I really appreciate them. I am still processing what had happened, and the mood changes several times a day: from wanting to talk about it to wishing to move on and back. I am OK, and my Dad seems fine, given the circumstances. I might come back to this topic on this blog or I might not. In either case, wishing all of you and your families good health and to only hear good news.

A bunch of updates in lieu of real post.

All of your looking for a good post-election laugh and - sigh - not finding it here, head over to Derfwad Manor for a rerun of Bigger Love and its sequel, Bigger Love, Episode 41. You are guaranteed a good non-partisan laugh with nice visuals.

Saw Get Smart yesterday. It was really funny. Haven't laughed so hard watching a movie in a long time. If you've been traumatized by Steve Carrell's previous movies, this one is really different, spoken by someone who turned 40-year Old Virgin off only after five minutes or so.

Read some comments in my Dear Doc post and realized that some people thought I might be talking about one particular doctor. I might be strange, but I am not a masochist. If any doctor inflicted this much crap bad doctoring and bedside manner on me, I would've dropped him like a hot potato long time ago. Rather, these are some fond memories and things that have happened over the years in my dealings with doctors, some of whom were forgiven or put on probation, while others have been mercilessly dumped. I actually remembered a few more episodes worthy of posting, so maybe I'll write a sequel.

Hate, absolutely hate all these time changes. Even though we supposedly gained an hour of sleep, I have been walking around yawning all week long, and found my friends, family and colleagues doing the same. Maybe, this time switch is sponsored by Starbucks? I fully expect to feel this way for at least another week. Hence, even though I have three viable ideas for posts, I am writing this. Waiting for my brain to unmush... Might take a while... Please stay tuned...

I want to paint the world in yogurt - Part 2

Kids have been asking for yogurt Monday morning, and shopping won't be done until Tuesday night. hehe...

Gotta love natural consequences...

Rabbi Shmuel Berenbaum, zt'l

I just heard this from my husband. Rav Raphael Shmuel Berenbaum, zt'l, had passed away today. The Jewish world had lost one of the greatest sages of our time. My husband said he had never seen so many grown men cry.

I never know what to say during these times, so I won't say anything... My heart goes out to his family, friends, students and anyone mourning him. :'(

Update: The levayah will be held at Mirrer Yeshiva starting 8.45 am until about 11 am, and then the body will be flown to Eretz Yisrael for burial.

No more ads!

I have decided to remove all the ads from my blog, at least for now. I just didn't have enough energy to filter out all the smutty and porn site ads that Google kept on putting on my pages. And, like I said before, my integrity is not on sale. It is for premium price buyers only. And earning $1.31 in the past two months is far from my idea of premium. So goodbye Google ads. You won't be missed, not by me.

Mr. Jim has left the building

Or has he?

When I came back to work on Monday, the smutty book was gone. I had a slight hope that maybe the secretary had thrown it out, but no, she didn't. Which means that someone has taking it and the smut is spreading around the office. How nice. Now two people acquainted themselves with these works of art.

As a result of Mr. Jim post, somebody on Google ads decided that the ads they post on my blog could get a bit racier. So the ads jumped from pacifier and diaper bag ads straight to the ones where guys prostitute their wives (there was more than one! ew). What gave Google the idea that a fundie like me would want to have a link to swinging and porno sites right next to the post decrying the loss of decency and propriety at the workplace? So now as I am posting, I am avoiding the buzz words, like s-e-x and others, and seriously considering taking Google ads off. It is not worth losing personal integrity over 3 (yes, three) cents they have earned me in the past three weeks. (And please do not read this as a request to click on any ads.) Google can keep its dirty p-o-r-n money, the entire three cents, since I am somewhat sure that it has got to be one of the smutty sites that generated the revenue. I am a strong believe in Murphy's Law.

As a side note, I think I am losing my grip. The thing is my boss' name is Jim, and it took me almost 24 hours to notice the irony. Oh well, getting old, I guess.

Innocence lost - 3 act (media circus) play with the epilogue.

Ok, here is why I am ticked off at J.K. Rowling and the brouhaha surrounding the announcement about Dumbledore.

Act 1 – Coming out.

First of let me say this: I do not care if Dumbledore is or isn’t gay. It wouldn’t make a difference to me even if I found out that he at one time was attracted to Mrs. Norris. For that matter, I don’t care whether McGonagall prefers girls, whether Umbridge is into S & M, or why Hagrid is obsessed with dragons. This is not why I read Harry Potter. I am quite sure that parents who brought their kids to the Q&A with J.K. Rowling didn’t bring them in for the enlightening sex ed talk either. Most of them came to talk about wizards, spells and magic, and instead were treated to a coming out party for Dumbledore. It is not about homosexuality at all; I would be just as upset if she revealed to the audience full of children that Dumbledore had an affair with a female professor. By doing this, Rowling robbed parents of the decision only they should make: when and how to talk to children about sex because I am sure many a conversation, for which adults might not have been prepared for, happened on the way home. All in all, this was not appropriate for the audience and the setting. The same info could have been revealed on Rowling's website, but then it might not have generated as much media attention, which brings us to...

Act 2 – The media reaction.

And then media jumps on this news as if there is nothing else to report and milks it for weeks. 17,000 children, who have died of starvation on the same day Dumbledore came out, didn’t make the news (that is already mundane), but the new antics of Britney Spears have, and so have the outing of a fictional character. Again, for days! (By the way, all of this is based on the CNN news website coverage, maybe some other sites exercised more common sense, though I doubt it). And all those pro-gay rights orgs’ praising Rowling's heroic fight to stop prejudice? Seriously, if the fictional character’s coming out helps to further your cause, then I… I don’t even know what to say then, other than DUMBLEDORE IS A WORK OF FICTION, NOT A REAL PERSON! PEOPLE GET LIVES!!!!

Act 3 – Innocence Lost (This is where I get preachy).

I think this entire Carnegie Hall episode is just one event in our society’s trend. We no longer treasure innocence. Just yesterday, I went clothes shopping for my kids in Children’s Place and Baby Gap where many shoppers come with their children. What kind of music did the stores play? I was there only for two songs, but one of them was mainly made up of one sentence, “I’m not the kind of girl who give it up just like that.” And the second one was “These boots are made for walking,” about a guy who is/was cheating. What did Baby Gap play? “I think we’re alone now” about teenagers hooking up. Why, why is that appropriate for young under-teen ears??? And it is not accidental, because last time I was in these stores, they were playing the same songs over and over again. Since those are chain shores, someone up there in corporate decided that this music fits the stores’ images and attracts young shoppers and their parents. What else did I see on my shopping spree? Low-rising jeans and low-rising underwear for 9 and 10-yr-old girls. Any surprises that some kids start being sexually active before they hit teen-age years? (in case you are wondering, I find this VERY disturbing.)

Epilogue

One of the main achievements of modern age, at least in the industrial world, was introducing idea of childhood, that children have special psychological needs and are not simply small adults. Now we are ruining this achievement by introducing them to things that are too adult, like violence and sex, way too early and see nothing wrong in that. And I think this is a loss, a tremendous loss.

Update on the worst mother of the event post:

My husband told me yesterday that his friend and his wife really liked our gifts, even better than all the others, primarily because we gave them toys. He sent a special thank you to me, since he knew I picked out the gifts. So maybe this friend doesn't dislike me after all.